fs. E. DAwsoNj THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 491 



lands to the west and south and continued to the following effect (and 

 here is the point of contention)— that since it may happen that, in sailing 

 to the west and south, the Spanish sailors may discover land in eastern 

 parts and lands which may belong to India, the Bulls of grant (B and 

 C) are extended in all their clauses to cover such lands, whether they 

 are or seem to be in the western, southern or eastern parts or in India. 

 Then followed a non ohstantur clause, evidently aimed at the excessive 

 claims of Portugal, not revoking the Portuguese Bulls, but quashing 

 the strained meaning put into them. The document then stated that, 

 as by chance at some time or other, persons may have navigated these 

 seas, nothing but actual and real previous possession was to avail in 

 setting a bar to Spain in extending her discoveries on a western course. 

 This principle of right by actual possession, was adopted in the treaty 

 of Tordesillas, and the reader will find in appendix D, Jaime Ferrer's 

 opinion given to the Spanish monarchs that the Spanish demarcation 

 might reach westwards round the world to the Arabian gulf, 'Hf our 

 " ships go there first." 



This view of the Bula de la extension is the one held by Navarrete. 

 It is expressed as follows by Munoz, "to remove every doubt with re- 

 "gard to those countries of the Indies to which the King of Portugal 

 "might lay claim by virtue of former Bulls, the Holy Father declared 

 " on the 26th of the follo^ving month of September, that all countries 

 •' of the Eastern Indies which the Spaniards might find in case they 

 " were not already in Christian hands, should be included in the grant 

 "made to the Catholic sovereigns." The principle laid down by the 

 Pope was, as between the two powers, eminently just ; for Portugal 

 was claiming by virtue of her Bulls, lands which none of her sailors 

 had ever seen. The Pope swept away these pretensions and made his 

 grant to follow discovery and possession. He drew no line in the East, 

 and therefore the papal partition of the world is, as will be shown more 

 fully — a popular myth. The reader will find this Bula de la extension 

 in appendix C. It is given in the Latin version of Solorzano De India- 

 rum Jure, Madrid, 1629. 



V. — The First Line of Demarcation. 



It was the opinion of Columbus and certainly, in 1-193, no other 

 opinion upon the subject was of equal weight, th'at on sailing wesitwards 

 across à meridian about one hundred leagues west of the Azores, he 

 had entered the New World, and he recorded in his journal that at that 

 point the needles of all his compasses had crossed over from easterly 

 variation to one point west of north. We cannot, at this day, realize 



